Rewilding explained and rewilding initiatives in Europe
- Greta Liscio
- May 9
- 5 min read
When Nature bounces back from degradation and exploitation
The wilderness is disappearing at faster rates than ever.
Europe is the continent with the least wilderness in the entire world. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Europe holds only between 1.7%-4% of intact wilderness.
Is there a way to restore the wild?
Yes. Give it a break and then let Nature do its thing.
More and more people are leaving the countryside.
The European continent is small and densely populated, which means that we have expanded into almost every corner of our available space, leaving little behind for the wild. But there is hope for a wilder Europe. Our society is changing rapidly and this gives us the chance to re-shape our continent. But let’s start from the beginning.
Rural areas were once more populated, thanks to paid work in food production throughout the continent. But this is indeed changing. Jobs in agriculture are not paid well enough to attract more workers, regardless of European subsidies. Furthermore, the entire system of production is changing. Service jobs are more attractive to people for the better wages, but also because people like to live in cities. Cities have more to offer, more jobs, more schools, universities, theaters, restaurants, opportunities, more entertainment, and more people.
Entire villages are dying off and left abandoned. On the one hand, that's sad. As a society we have failed to offer a viable alternative to rural areas in most of our countries. Decentralization hasn’t really worked, at least not in all Europe. Globally, urban population is expected to represent 61% of the entire world population by 2030, and it is expected to raise up to 80%. However, on the other hand, that mustn’t necessarily be only bad news.
On average, living in the countryside, as weird as it sounds, is less sustainable than living in cities.
Cities offer smaller apartments in more efficient buildings, in a landscape that grows vertically. Moreover, the cost of providing efficient energy infrastructure to remote places is higher than in cities. Unless someone is able to live off the grid of course. Urbanization is going to lead to more efficiency in terms of land area necessary to support a number of people. And aside from that, if more and more people are leaving the countryside abandoning land, that gives ecosystems and the wild a chance to bounce back. Sure, cities will expand, but they will be more densely populated too. Based on these facts and present trends, ecologists have pointed out new opportunities in conservation. Among those, rewilding is on the mouth of everyone.
What is rewilding?
The term appeared in the 1980s and refers to the extension and recovery of wilderness areas by connecting and reconverting land that was previously used for other ends, to reserves and parks. This practice could be described as passive rewilding, since it only provides more space to already available ecosystems that include keystone species. By extending the available space for nature to thrive, ecosystems naturally expand.
However, recently more ambitious and extreme approaches to rewilding practices have been implemented, to contrast the increasing biodiversity and species loss. New approaches involve the reintroduction of extinct or keystone species in specific areas, in order to re-create trophic cascades*, and implement ecosystem restoration.
The main aim of rewilding projects around the world is restoring destroyed ecosystems and bringing them back to functioning ones. This involves the restoration of natural processes and species interactions, as well as granting ecosystems the necessary space for the recovery of ecological processes. Rewilding is already occurring naturally in Europe, thanks to land abandonment and the efforts of the academic community, as well as NGOs and local governments. Currently, there are numerous initiatives throughout Europe for the rewilding of large areas and the reintroduction of extinct species.
Rewilding initiatives in Europe
Rewilding Europe is a pan-European initiative. The Dutch NGO was started by academics already connected to one of the first rewilding projects in Europe: Oosvardersplasse. Rewilding Europe is now working on large rewilding projects across the subcontinent. Their initiatives vary from wolf and bear re-introductions, to the re-introductions of ancient megafauna such as bison and wild horses.
Trees for Life is an organization concerned with rewilding the Scottish Highlands with native trees. Their goal is to re-create the wild Caledonian forest. Moreover, Trees for Life is re-introducing the Lynx, now extinct, and re-locating Beavers, as well as red squirrels in the Highlands.
The European Green Belt is an association promoting the creation of a wildlife corridor that goes through what once was the Iron Curtain. This green, protected stretch crosses 24 European countries. It is one of the most important ecological networks for species in the European continent.
Wild Europe is an organization bringing together representatives from different organizations, such as the United Nations and WWF. It promotes a strategy for environmental restoration and protection.
Does rewilding work?
Yes, it does, and on many levels. The whole point of rewilding is recreating the conditions for Nature to do its thing. In some places the degradation and the previous ecosystem’s distortion has been so deep, that more ambitious efforts must be taken in order to recreate a functioning ecosystem. The reintroduction of large predators, like bears and wolves, has proven to be particularly challenging from a sociopolitical point of view. Local populations may not see such initiatives favorably, if not backed up by balancing policies and aid from local governments. However, rewilding practices have proven to be successful ecosystem restoration tools and, furthermore, have a cultural and economic value. Tourism, in areas where wildlife can be experienced, is increasing. It seems like we can go back to coexist with wildlife also here, in Europe.
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Bibliography
Grove, J. M. (2009). Cities: managing densely settled social-ecological systems. Principles of ecosystem stewardship: Resilience-based natural resource management in a changing world, 281-294.
Blythe, C., & Jepson, P. (2020). Rewilding: The radical new science of ecological recovery (Vol. 14). Icon Books.
Carver, S., Convery, I., Hawkins, S., Beyers, R., Eagle, A., Kun, Z., ... & Soulé, M. (2021). Guiding principles for rewilding. Conservation Biology, 35(6), 1882-1893.
Pettorelli, N., Durant, S. M., & Du Toit, J. T. (Eds.). (2019). Rewilding. Cambridge University Press.
Pereira, H. M., & Navarro, L. M. (2015). Rewilding european landscapes (p. 227). Springer Nature.
